Illinois Billionaire Dick Uihlein Has Invested More Than $24M Across Kevin Nicholson-Supporting Groups

Illinois Billionaire Dick Uihlein Has Invested More Than $24M Across Kevin Nicholson-Supporting Groups

Uihlein-funded, pro-Nicholson groups have already spent more than $4 million on TV and radio ads trying to buy Nicholson a U.S. Senate seat

MADISON -- A new report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discloses that Illinois billionaire Dick Uihlein-funded groups have already spent more than $4 million on TV and radio ads as he tries to buy Republican Kevin Nicholson a Wisconsin U.S. Senate seat.

But that $4 million -- as jaw-dropping a figure as it is -- isn't even the full scope of Uihlein's eight-figure effort to buy Nicholson an election across state lines.

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Uihlein has since 2014 invested a whopping $24.4 million across 8 groups supporting, endorsing or spending money to elect Nicholson: Solutions for Wisconsin, Americas PAC, Restoration PAC, FreedomWorks, John Bolton Super PAC, the Madison Project, Great America PAC, an d the Club for Growth.

And from 2017-2018, alone, Uihlein poured nearly $14 million into those same groups, as they have launched attacks on Nicholson's primary opponent, Leah Vukmir, smeared U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, and otherwise sought to buy Uihlein a seat for Nicholson in the U.S. Senate.

That includes Nicholson's backing of the GOP plan that hikes taxes on middle-class families in order gift massive tax cuts to corporations like Exxon and the wealthy few. And it covers Nicholson's ongoing support for dangerous Trumpcare plans that would take care away from 30 million Americans and gut protections for Wisconsinites with preexisting conditions.

"It's easy to see why Illinois billionaire Dick Uihlein has spent nearly $14 million over the past year trying to buy Kevin Nicholson a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin," said Brad Bainum, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson for the 2018 U.S. Senate race. "Nicholson is running to protect Washington's corporate special interest corruption that enriches CEOs like Uihlein, but leaves hardworking Wisconsinites behind."